Turkey says no

Turkey rejection stuns US
01/03/2003 21:35  - (SA)  

US officials, who had been prepared to hail the parliament's approval of the deployment based on initial reports that the vote had succeeded, expressed consternation when told that it had in fact been defeated.

"They did what?" blurted one State Department official.

I have to admit, part of me finds this rather humorous. There's a certain amount of irony in the fact that just last week, well after our attempts to buy off the Turkish government in order to get them to allow us to station troops in their country, Ari Fleischer, President Bush's press secretary, was asked about what the US might be willing to do in order to get the support of another government - and after trying to dodge the question a few times, gave this as his answer:

Mr. Fleischer: I haven't seen the story. And you already have the answer, about what this will be decided on. But think about the implications of what you're saying. You're saying that the leaders of other nations are buyable. And that is not an acceptable proposition.

Looks like he might actually be right after all.  Despite the money, grants, loans and other benefits we offered, the Turkish government turned us down.  Good for the Turks!

The article also notes:

After hearing the first reports that the parliament had approved access for US troops, the United States was set to laud the move and praise the Turkish government for its courage, according to a reaction prepared by the State Department.

"We warmly welcome the decision of the Turkish parliament to permit US forces to enter Turkey for possible military operations towards Iraq," it said. "We applaud the courageous leadership of the Turkish government."

[...]

After it became clear the vote had failed, one US official said the earlier language was "no longer operative."

It was not immediately clear if a new reaction would be prepared.

Another article from the same source also notes:

In Ankara, the embassy said US ties with Turkey would not be threatened by the vote, calling it democratic and one that would be respected by Washington.

"We respect this as a democratic result," embassy spokesperson Joseph Pennington said. "We will live with that. US ties with Turkey are not threatened in any way."

I'm sure the French and Germans will be relieved to hear this....  (Why do I have this feeling that this year, Thanksgiving menus may end up being a bit different than most years?)